EC accession to the Agreement of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe: uniform technical prescriptions for wheeled vehicles, equipment and parts which can be fitted to and/or be used on wheeled vehicles and the conditions for reciprocal recognition of approvals granted on the basis of these prescriptions ('Revised 1958 Agreement')

OBJECTIVE: the proposal for a Council Decision concerns accession by the European Community to the 1958 Revised Agreement concerning the adoption of uniform conditions of approval and reciprocal recognition of approval for motor vehicle equipment and parts.

SUBSTANCE: the 1958 Revised Agreement, which was concluded under the aegis of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE), seeks to facilitate the trade in vehicles between the contracting parties so as to ensure that such trade cannot be hampered by technical problems associated with vehicle design. Accession by the Community to the Agreement, as is now proving possible, satisfies two complementary concerns: first, the wish to bolster the Agreement to make it into a world focus for the technical harmonization of motor vehicles, and secondly, the coherence needed between the law-making activities in Geneva and those existing at Community level. The mandatory application of Community type approval from 01/01/1996 for private vehicles and the quest for the best possible system by that date makes it desirable for the Community to accede to the Revised Agreement as soon as it enters into force.